Senior night at Weibel Avenue Ice Rink couldn't have gone any better for the Saratoga Blue Streaks. They scored five goals, limited Shenendehowa to just one and moved to only a point out of first place — all in front of a packed house.

"If you can't get pumped up for this game then you can't get pumped up for anything," said Saratoga head coach Dave Torres. "It was a great team effort and we turned it on for the two periods at the end so that was awesome."

The Blue Streaks (10-5-3 overall, 7-1-3 Capital District High School Hockey League) struck early with a goal by junior forward Jack Rittenhouse 4 minutes, 5 seconds into the first period. Junior defenseman Ian Frey delivered a pass to senior captain Drew Patterson, who was well defended at the left post. Rittenhouse collected the loose puck and slipped it past sophomore goalie Jordan Moffre.

Shenendehowa (11-6-1, 8-1-1) had difficulty moving the puck on offense for most of the game, but the Plainsmen caught a break with eight minutes to go in the first when senior Ryan Mortka intercepted a pass in Saratoga's defensive end. He played it to senior Kyle Marr, who buried the shot for his team-leading 17th goal of the season. The assist was Mortka's 21st this season.

With the game tied, composure escaped both teams for the remainder of the first period. In just more than a minute, from 5:01 to 3:58, the two teams racked up four penalties — two slashing penalties for the Plainsmen to which Saratoga responded with one elbowing and one holding penalty. The teams combined for 12 penalties in the game.

The Blue Streaks capitalized three times on Shenendehowa's defensive mistakes to open up the game in the second period. The Plainsmen left Saratoga's leading scorer, junior JT Rafferty, completely unaccounted for as he finished off a wide-open shot at 5:17, assisted by Brendan Coffey and Jake Fouler.

Saratoga's next goal came three minutes later when a Plainsmen defenseman hesitated to make a play on the puck sailing on the open ice toward Moffre. Saratoga senior forward Grayson Rieder hustled to chase it down before gathering himself and putting his shot past Moffre. With 3:15 left in the second period, Patterson jockeyed for great position in front of the goal to score on assists from Rieder and senior captain Nick Conchieri.

As time dwindled in the third period, the Plainsmen were desperate to score, but Saratoga's defense and sophomore goalie Danny Hobbs were too organized — the Blue Streaks even managed to shut down a 5-on-3 power play for a minute and a half in the last 2:03 of the game. They then scored one more goal to boot — an unassisted, empty-net score by Frey with 31.9 on the clock.

"We defended our home ice, that's what it's all about," Torres said. "We love playing here and we're hoping to continue (it) into next week and into the postseason."